Most newspaper headlines highlight “the sweeping victory" of Islamists in the run-offs for the first phase of parliamentary elections. State-owned Al-Ahram daily says that Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood candidates won 81 percent of the 52 single-winner seats that were up for grabs this week, with the Brotherhood taking 42 of the 46 seats it was contesting in the run-offs. However, state-owned Al-Akhbar daily gives a different figure: it says that the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political wing, won 31 seats while the Salafi-led Nour Party garnered five. The country's elections commission is expected to announce the final results on Thursday.
While government-owned papers are highlighting the results, party paper Al-Wafd questions the entire electoral process. The leftist paper leads with “Thugs steal ballots in Cairo. Campaigning reaches polling stations, appeals haunt the revolution’s parliament.” By the same token, privately-owned Al-Tahrir leads with “Nullification haunts elections,” reporting that more than 100 complaints contesting the fairness of the poll have been filed.
The paper’s editor Ibrahim Eissa questions in his column the significance of the new parliament. He highlights Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) member Mamdouh Shahin's statement that the parliament will not have the right to form a cabinet or even withdraw confidence from it. The power to appoint and sack cabinets will remain in the gnerals' hands. Eissa also argues that when a new constitution is drafted, the parliament should be dissolved and a new one elected.
“This parliament should not last for more than seven months,” Eissa writes. “The minute a new constitution is drafted and gets approved in a public referendum, this parliament will have no legitimacy to stay for one more day. The new constitution builds a new life for Egypt …”
As to the newly-formed cabinet, Al-Ahram quotes SCAF-appointed Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri as saying, “The situation in Egypt is not satisfactory and my cabinet aims to save the revolution.” Ganzouri, who served in the same position under Mubarak in the 1990s, said that his cabinet will not include young ministers because “the load is heavy,” but that six or seven young people will serve as assistant ministers. He also promised to hire 500,000 employees on a permanent basis and to amend the real estate tax and social insurance laws, according to Al-Ahram. The new cabinet is expected to be sworn in Wednesday, with at least a dozen ministers remaining from the outgoing cabinet.
Al-Wafd wonders where this new cabinet will operate as hundreds of protesters are still camping outside the official cabinet headquarters off Qasr al-Aini Street near Tahrir Square to protest Ganzouri's appointment. Ganzouri has been holding meetings in the headquarters of the Planning and International Cooperation Ministry in Nasr City, according to Al-Wafd.
The same paper says that protesters rallying in Tahrir are divided over whether to halt their sit-in. Al-Wafd says that some youth leaders want to end the protest as the turnout is continuously waning. Independent Al-Shorouk highlights a SCAF statement issued yesterday affirming that the military has no intention of dispersing the sit-in by force.
The army statement sought to belittle those in Tahrir, saying: “Tahrir Square, the square of freedom, is closed and nobody knows who closed it to Egyptians … It was revolutionaries who rallied in Tahrir Square, and Egyptians and the security apparatus respected their desire. Yet in the last few days, things have changed … When protesters announced they would open the square and marched under the slogan ‘let’s open the square,’ they were attacked … ,” read the statement quoted in Al-Shorouk.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
